This book is from the short lived Vertigo Crime series and is a great read.

Mr Starr is a really great crime writer who I predict will soon be exploding in the comics world. Try some of his prose books as well, they are twisted genius! The art is also excellent and reminds me of Eduardo Risso.

This series should have been given longer to grow and they all have been enjoyable commute reads for me.

Saturday, 18 August 2012

Sometimes when a great creator dies in any medium I get a
kick in the head as to why I had missed out on some of his creations. Often no
matter how much you admire and follow a creator in any medium there are always
the pieces that you missed or hadn’t got around to yet.

I met this particular person at the New York Comicon a few
years ago and got to tell him how much I enjoyed his stories. He thanked me and grinned and shook my
hand. I was literally grinning for the
rest of the day. Some people you admire
find a way to let you down. This man
never did.

Last week the always great Joe Kubert died. One of the true giants of the medium and
beyond. I was prompted to get over to Amazon and order something. Anything that would remind me of his
greatness.#

With Joe it is never difficult. He was prolific to say the least and all of
his work (not easy to say for even the best creators out there) was of genuine
genius. Amazon – please take my
wages! You know you want to!

I actually ordered a few books but the first one I read had
a real impact on me. This is a review.

The story of the book follows Tor. A prehistoric man unlike others and his
travels and adventures through his strange lands. Tor is a character that Joe returned to
throughout his long career . This particular story sees him on a journey of
survival where he finds allies in a group of outcasts and finds a mate. During his journey he fights horrific prehistoric
missing links and monsters a many.

The book ends with him standing with his new mate awaiting
the opening of a further story.

The book in many ways has a simplistic story. Why would it not? There are no direct speech bubbles and it is
told in an almost poetic narration but the author. It is epic in scope but also manages to speak
to the character of Tor really well. He
is a character devoid of the useless emotions of modern life. He paces forward whenever physically possible
in a quest merely to survive.

Joe famously took care of Edgar Rice Burrough’s Tarzan
mythos for many years. But to me this is more akin to say Bran Mak Morn by
Robert E Howard than it is to the King of the Jungle. Tor’s wordless style allows in many ways to
use the image to portray this almost hopeless quest to survive in the harshest
of environments. Raw emotions are always on show. The bare teeth of the enemy manage to say
more than pages of blah blah in a stylish New York apartment for example.

This book ooses bleakness. We travel from snow topped
mountains to fantastical forests. When
Tor hungers you can feel his hunger, when he rages you feel his anger.

The story is packed full of masterfully executed
surprises. We see gross and terrifying
monsters spring up and attack. We fear
for the protagonists in each and every one of the battles. Never sure who will live through the
issue. The death of the adoptive son
character in the snowy wastes has a real poignancy. They mourn his passing and
plough ahead for their own survival.
There is no melodramatic weeping in this book.

Tor is the man of practical feats with almost superhuman
results. Oh, and a mullet – never forget that!

Joe’s art has (as always) a real feel of motion to it. An expert cartoonist you can feel the motion
of each movement throughout the issue.
When he throws himself into a fight you can feel the sweat on him, the
wind against him and his gritted teeth.
This book very rarely feels the darkness. Why would it?
Why would a man of Tor’s time bother travelling in the dark. It seems that the brightness of the story
almost adds to the bleakness of the situation.
Desperation through seeing the way spread out in front of you, feeling
the battle that is every day in this world.

The book manages to speak to so many themes. We see an ongoing commentary on outsiders in
all forms of society. The abuse of the weak by the strong. A world of religion
gone mad (see the nonsensical sacrifice in issue 2). It has themes of drugs and
hallucinations. And most obviously the inter racial relationship that is pretty
much the only thing to survive the Odyssey. What other six issue mini series
can boast to this many?

But to me the most interesting strand in the story of Tor is
his desperation to never lose control.
We see him a walking dead man covered in injuries in issue one as his
tribe throw him out. His horrible nightmares
and a sense of falling when he hallucinates.
A fight against overwhelming odds that he cannot hope to win. We see him
injured again and again and carried away by a monster / friend. He cannot move and watches three disparate
strangers treat his wounds as he drifts in and out of a fever dream. What is real and what is not? Tor is reliant on his strength and his
cunning. To lose control is to lose
everything.

Draw what you will but there is no denying that it is very
interesting.

I think my stand out moment is when (in issue six) Tor
allows a moment to look and ponder. His
mate is asleep and he looks up at the stars.

‘Did those immense
figures jump into the sky from snow-capped mountains. Why do they not fall from
the sky.’

After reading this book I found a knowing fondness for Tor.
For an outwardly simple character this story gives him real depth.